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Les pirates du Pôle Sud (Miklo)
Les pirates du Pôle Sud (The Pirates of the South Pole) was the second in a series of graphic novels published in French by the Belgian publisher Emissions Lefrancq from 1990 onwards. # Les pirates du Pôle Sud, an adaptation of Biggles' Second Case, was published in 1991 with story and artwork by Francis Bergèse, who did most of the early books in the series. The book was reprinted by Belgian publisher Miklo in 1998 and then by Le Lombard in 2003. Translations of the book exist in Dutch and German. The title was not translated into English until 2007 when Euro Books (India) published one under the title The Pirates of the South Pole. Synopsis Les pirates du Pôle is a graphic novel adaptation of Biggles' Second Case where Biggles and co. are sent on the trail of a rogue German submarine, the U-517, which had refused to surrender at the end of the Second World War. Plot (Click on expand to read) The adaptation of the original novel is faithful in most respects but some important changes have been made: *Muller did not go to Berlin. He escaped his submarine in a dinghy and was found by a destroyer escorting a convoy and told his story to the captain. Thom did not assasinate him. He died of exposure and exhaustion instead. *As an embellishment, Muller mentions that the U-517 refuelled at Liberia on the way back to Germany, getting fuel from the black market. *The Tarpons are replaced by Grumman Widgeons. Biggles and co. fly out to Cape Town in a DC-3 to pick up their Widgeons to fly to Kerguelen. *The Nimrods are replaced by Fairey Fireflies. *The name of the supply sloop Tern is changed to Stern. *The extended geography lesson Raymond gives about islands at the beginning of the originalnovel is compressed into two speech bubbles delivered by Biggles on board a DC-3. *The unnamed Norwegian whaler now has a name, the Leka of Oslo. It is not mentioned in the dialogue but can be seen painted on the vessel's stern. *Ginger's harpoon rescue act is not depicted. *The aircraft carrier is not named as HMS Vega. Characters The Special Air Police *Air Commodore Raymond *Biggles *Algy Lacey *Ginger Hebblethwaite *Bertie Lissie Friends and allies *Muller *Axel Prinz *Sven Honritzen Others *Captain Ulrich von Schonbeck *Leutnant Thom Aircraft *Douglas DC-3 *Grumman Widgeon amphibian *Fairey Firefly Ships *U-517 *Supply Sloop Sterne - it was the Tern in the original novel. *Unnamed British aircraft carrier - the name H.M.S. Vega found in the original novel is not used in the text or drawings. The carrier appears to a Colossus class light carrier. *Norwegian whaler - unnamed in the original, this now has the name Leka of Oslo painted on the stern. Places Visited *Cape Town *Kerguelen *Corbie Island Mentioned *Swain Island *Crozet Islands - western limit of search area from Kerguelen *Heard Island and McDonald Islands - southeastern limit of search area from Kerguelen Other Research Notes *Fairey Fireflies were launched by the aircraft carrier to support Biggles. This is historically accurate and the type is appropriate to the mission and better than confusing readers with an unknown Nimrod type. *In the same way, Bergèse chose to use the Grumman Widgeon rather than have some fictional Tarpon. He probably wanted to use a real aircraft whenever possible, but the Widgeon would have had too short a range to be comfortably operating in a base as remote as Kerguelen. It certainly could not make the flight from Cape Town to the base. Why does everybody avoid the Consolidated Catalina? *The submarine drawn is still a Type VII, same as in the illustrations of the original novel. A Type IX would have been more suited to the long range mission given to U-517. References to the past Incongruities *Johns' famous incongruity about polar bears in the Antarctic is reproduced. How's that for faithfulness to the original plot! Bergèse, would of course, have known better. It was probably done as homage to Johns and his blooper. Chronology Editions Category:Derivative works